A baby boomer fires back at ‘a certain age bracket’

I don’t get cross at much, but one thing that really sticks in my craw is the constant harping by a certain section of a certain age bracket – that somehow the baby-boomers are the source of all evil in the world.

Do they realise that the next generation is going to say exactly the same thing about theirs? With just as much or as little justification? Probably not. They’re God’s gift to humanity they are.

What exactly are they doing to create a better world? Are they using fewer resources? Are they voting for political parties that are trying to? Not by the look of that house and that car and those clothes they’re not.

Which generation is expert at internet crime, likely to cause the collapse of the global economic system as we know it, and deal in new forms of bush-button warfare?

Not fair criticism, they say. No, it’s not fair – but it’s as fair as what they’re dishing out to their parents, or maybe their grandparents.

Not you, of course, if you happen to be of that generation – as I said, you’re smarter than that.

Do they think corporate greed suddenly emerged twenty-plus years after the end of World War 2, just with people now retiring? Have they never heard of the 1929 Depression, the idiocy of Prohibition that gave us the platform for organised crime? Should the baby-boomers try to pass the buck to their parents, and they might do to theirs?

Yes, some baby-boomers made money by investing in a house to put a roof over their children’s head. Generally, they were not looking to end their lives basking in luxury. They just wanted security, and most paid for it fortnight by fortnight, interest rates at about 15%.

Some put off travel until retirement, once they gave their kids a start in life. Now a lot don’t have the money or the health to do that, or new responsibilities have been dumped in their laps that they had no idea were coming. They’ve missed out on a lot of the fun. Maybe not your oldies. Good for them if they’ve managed to squeeze it in before they drop off the perch.

Who wants to start at the top? Who’s seeking luxury right now? Who’s travelled all over the world before they’re thirty, and have a brand new car?

I know that you saved money and paid for your trip and are busting your guts paying off that car. You know better than the whingers. I’ve no intention of insulting you. And you also know what your oldies did for you.

A lot of baby-boomers didn’t have any of this. They didn’t leave high school with a glorious gap year ahead, often with no end of the gap in sight, supported by social security built on a system the post-war generation paid for. It was unthinkable.

Incidentally, I’m in favour of the gap year, but that’s another story. The point is, remember where the structure which supports it comes from.

Most baby-boomers helped create a stable financial environment, paid into superannuation funds or, if they couldn’t afford that or it wasn’t available, the money was put into giving their kids the education and comforts they now have.

Break your arm at basketball on a Saturday afternoon, and [in Australia] you can go to Accident & Emergency at a public hospital and have it dealt with – free of charge. Yes, it’s way from perfect, but Gina Rinehart didn’t give you that. Those baby-boomers did.

The greatest critics are the well-heeled upstarts who have been handed their advantages on a silver platter. Luckily there are others the same age; you, for example, who know what your parents have done/are doing for you, and yes, we know you are still paying off your HECS tertiary education debt. I had to pay term by term for my university fees as well in the 1960s. Up front.

Let’s not forget a few things. Many of these baby-boomers are rearing their children’s kids while their own children draw a salary. Yes, that income is critical and they don’t begrudge it. In sadder cases, they’re rearing children whose parents are rarely if ever around.

Bear in mind that this is after these baby-boomers spent their working lives rearing their own, and thought they were going to get a break. Raising grandchildren is exhausting for people approaching old age, but they rarely complain, for the sake of those kids.

They have not robbed their children of their future. In many cases, they sacrificed their own. And if they haven’t solved the world’s problems, like it or not, you may well have been the beneficiary, and the debt for that might well be passed down to your children through you.

The ingratitude of those who say they are now going to have to pay something to support their parents’ old age is bloody despicable. If that’s their attitude, I say, grow up, kiddies. Make the stats say what you like. We were there, preparing to give our kids a future. It so happened that some made money. Woopie-do. A lot didn’t because they made big sacrifices, and often still are.

But as I said, I’m not talking about you. You have more sense. It’s them. The immature, self-centred ingrates.

To them I say, get off our backs. Many baby-boomers are all too familiar with that sensation, and we don’t buy those spurious claims the piggy-backing little sods are making.

NOTE: My own children paid their own way after high school. They gave us as much as we gave them, and they don’t complain.

Comments

So well said, and none to soon. The new sense of entitlement casts so much blame on those who placed the foundations that we take for granted. And I’m not talking housing affordability, I’m talking wage unity, environmental awareness, standard of living, civic rights etc etc The Me Gen will look back and wonder what they really had to whinge about after all, besides not acting on climate change more seriously, middle class welfare, freedoms and the like.

Thanks. Eloquently put. Must admit I was a tad discomfited yesterday with all that rich baby boomer stuff on Twitter. If they only knew how poorly some us are travelling thanks to unforeseen circumstances like the GFC, health issues, having to care for dying parents/siblings despite having planned/prepared for retirement.

So well put. We never questioned paying our taxes to pay off much of the infrastructure that was sold in recent years to give back to many of those who are now whinging in the form of subsidies and welfare payments. Not to us, as we scrimped and saved for our retirement so that we wouldn’t be a burden on society, self-funded retirees they call us as though it is a dirty word. But we had to make the sacrifices when we were young to put that money into super when we often desperately needed it just to survive sick kids, ailing parents, house payments etc. we don’t complain when interest rates go down because it helps the younger generations with their mortgages but it means our income reduces. I don’t hear too many commentators commiserating about that. So yes, I get tired of the criticism of the baby boomers. Stop and think how it is for others. Every generation has its challenges and we should all be trying to pull together to maintain our great country not tearing it down by singling out sections of the community to blame for any perceived ills.

YESSSS! Well said! So stop bitching, and get out there and make YOUR life happen! You are supposed to be in control of it — aren’t you! Most of the BB’s had to make theirs and there are a lot that are not well off and looking down the barrel of an age pension that just barely meets the basics!